It can be funny how hearing one song on the radio can turn into a three-hour flurry of internet research and even a little soul searching.

So I heard a song called Fireflies and swore to myself that The Postal Service had finally released some new material. Closer inspection revealed, however, that is was a new “band” (well new to me, anyway) called Owl City. And thus began the hours of Googling, YouTubing WikiPediaing, Soundclouding, MySpacing and iMeeming that will bring us to this post.

Let me first say that I LOVE the song. It’s about insomnia – always a cool topic for thoughtful songwriters. The video is pretty cool, too.

Owl City – Fireflies

MORE OWL CITY TUNES (click)
SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS TUNES (click) – This is a project involving Adam Young from Owl City.

So, I set out to find out more about this new band – Owl City. What I found is that Owl City is really just one guy, Adam Young. Adam grew up in rural Minnesota, where he would often retreat to his parent’s basement to write and ultimately record songs – especially when he couldn’t sleep!

This reminded me of Imogen Heap, another performer famous for creating her own sounds.

I then found that Owl City will be in concert here in Portland. He will be performing at the Hawthorne Theater and the idea was born to do a little promotion here on FabulousPDX. I also started a search for tickets that yielded some interesting results. The story of those results is a bit of a departure – but here goes.

I searched for tickets to the show and came across a Willamette Week promotion that offered 6% off tickets, but only if purchased through a site called “Performer Events.” I dutifully clicked over to the site with happy thoughts about Willamette Week. Tickets there ranged from $62 to $99. Huh? I then went to another major ticketseller and encountered prices over $100. This is crazy! I just saw a show at the Doug Fir for $12. How could the Hawthorne be so much more? Sad that I would now not be able to go to the show with any of my cheaper friends, I attempted one last ditch effort – the Hawthorne Theater Website. There, I found that tickets (all General Admission, by the way) are only $12. Wow, how close I came to being ripped off. And thanks a lot, Willamette Week! Don’t tell us we are getting a deal on tickets that are already 5 times marked up.

Okay, back to the story of Owl City.

I watched some videos of Adam Young performing as Owl City and my gaydar started beeping faintly. Faint, but strong enough to warrant a Google search. Although the question has definitely been asked, no conclusions had been reached.

Next I wandered over to Wikipedia where there was an entry about Adam being a devout Christian, but that he keeps his faith separate from his music. Hmmmm. His MySpace has a line about his faith in Jesus that appears to be written by him.

This caused a whole momentary crisis for me. Could I promote an avowed Christian on a gay web site? Could I find any comments he has ever made about gay rights? No. What is the deal between Christianity and Gay Rights, anyway? Am I guilty of negatively sterotyping a whole group of people in exactly the same way I do not want my community to be stereotyped?

I even talked with a friend who was unfortunate to be available as I struggled with this. Ultimately – and obviously – I decided to promote the music and the show. Just as I would not want to think that someone knows me and what I believe simply because I carry a Rainbow Flag at a parade, I (we) should not profess to be able to know everything about someone because of a profession of Christian faith on a web page.

Let the music speak for itself.

Get Owl City Songs as MP3 Files

Get Owl City CD’s

Tags: Music, Owl City